The present invention relates to encoding diagnostic data in an error message for a computer program.
In a computer system running one or more application programs, errors in the processing of the application programs may occur. The occurrence of an error is communicated to a user by an error message displayed in an error message window. The error message is commonly communicated to a support organization for the application program by sending a screen shot that includes the displayed error message. The error message may display a summary of the error or optionally a full report. However, the summary of the error is seldom sufficient to diagnose the fault whereas the full report is often too long to display in full within the error message window and is thus truncated in the screen shot provided to the support organization. Furthermore, while a full report may be generated separately and sent to the support organization, the extra steps required for the user to perform this task often result in the task not being performed or only being performed with significant delay.